Monday 15 August 2016

Harvest Monday - hello summer veggies

I've not been doing too badly on the summer veggies so far, but this week they've picked up apace.
 
At the beginning of the week I was picking a few tomatoes every day or so.
But today I got a lovely bowlful. A few sunny days here and there have really brought them on. I've also been snipping off quite a lot of lower leaves (and even a few higher up ones where the plants have been very congested) to help with air circulation and to let light in.
Back in the kitchen, mmm look good. I'm heading round to a friend's tomorrow so I'll take some with me.
There've been lots of green things (with the occasional splash of colour)
This cucumber is from a plant I have growing in my lean-to at home. The cuke was hiding away and got a bit big but was still quite tasty. Funnily enough the outdoor cukes are doing much better than the indoor one. There's a tomato plant nearby that I think is affecting it, plus the rhubarb plant just outside the window has been shading it.
Allotment cukes
Blackberries have also been on the increase this week, I'm picking a large tub every two or three days (and actually could pick a load more if I went wearing thicker clothes to reach further in)
Of course there's more (and more) courgettes too
And beans
Yesterday I went through harvesting leafy greens too, about 1.5 lbs in the bag
So, using up some of these goodies I've made salads
Frozen some of the beans
Made loads of these mixed veggie meals (adding tomatoes really lifts the dish too)
Frozen the majority of the greens
Oh, and I made a spiced marrow and tomato chutney today. I'd been meaning to make it for the last couple of weeks, so luckily the marrow was still ok. It seemed to take most of the day to make, what with all the chopping and simmering
But the end result was ten jars of (hopefully) tasty chutney. I whizzed it a bit with a stick blender so it's easier to spread in sandwiches. I made a bit of a mess to begin with when I was pouring it into the jars (I use a small glass jug) because I forgot I actually have a funnel which sits nicely in the neck of most jars, doh. They cleaned up ok though.
This coming week I need to try and find some time to do a bit (a lot) of weeding and grass cutting...but it's much more fun just picking things to eat.
 
Thanks for reading, I'm linking in with Harvest Monday kindly hosted by Dave at Our Happy Acres.
 

 

16 comments:

  1. Your tomatoes are doing great

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    1. Thanks sue, it seems like a good year for me with tomatoes... I think a lot of it is down to having the lean-to greenhouse on the south side of our house.

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  2. What a great load of veggies you've got and very nice looking tomatoes! It does get a bit hard to focus on the mowing and clean up when harvesting is so much fun at this time of the year.

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    1. Thanks Susie, I I have to say that I haven't actually ended up doing much weeding or grass cutting this week, Hehe.

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  3. what a lovely bunch of tomatoes! It's funny your outside cuke did better than the one in the greenhouse. Mine have been the opposite, whough spider mites have attacked in the greenhouse now and the cucumber vines are just about toast. Your chutney making sounds a lot like my ketchup - it was a marathon event!

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    1. Thanks Dave, yeh I think there's a couple of things affecting the inside cuke - it's in a large rectangular, tub but to make use of the space I put a tomato in a smaller square pot on top of the cuke tub, tucked into one corner. The tomato has done really well so I wonder if its roots have gone into the tub and put off the cuke. And earlier in the season when the cuke was small a rhubarb plant in a pot outside the lean-to window was shading the cuke a lot even though I occasionally harvested the rhubarb. The cuke is now climbing up a trellis so getting more light higher up. I grew cukes in the lean-to a couple of times before and they did well but gave it rest for a few years as started getting red spider mite issues too.
      I bet your ketchup tastes lovely though Dave, yum :)

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  4. So many tomatoes, what a treat! It seems we've been eating some similar dishes - plenty of tomato and cucumber salads here too and my husband loves any meal that can be eaten out of a bowl so we have lots of vegetable mixes.

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    1. Hi Michelle, ha ha yeh we eat a lot of veggie bowl dishes too. I especially like the ingredients at this time of year which combine nicely in one pot for cooking....less washing up!

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  5. Wow! LOOK AT ALL YOUR TOMATOES!! I'm still waiting for any of mine to ripen!

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    1. Thanks S-h Susie! I'm lucky to have a lean-to greenhouse on the back of our house (which was a bit of a clincher when we were house hunting), which really helps growing toms and peppers etc. the only time I tried to grow them outside they got blight.

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  6. It is that time of year, isn't it, when the harvests pick up...sometimes too much as I'm sure will shortly happen with the tomatoes for you. My tomato overload has just begun, so I'm in "putting up the harvest" mode right now.

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    1. Hi Margaret, yeah I'll probably start making sauces for the freezer soon...only trouble is, the freezer is already full! I will have to re-shuffle it. Hope your preserving is going well.

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  7. from Kathy (Sorry I cannot log in any other way!)
    Love the look of your chutney: good use of a marrow!

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    1. Thanks Kathy, hello! Yeh it's been a while since I've accidentally ended up with a marrow, so chutney seemed a good option. I've used the same recipe before so hope it turns out ok, and I'll leave the jars for a few weeks to mature.

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  8. Isn't it nice to have as many tomatoes as you want! I wish they had a longer season. I don't freeze much of my produce, but I do usually freeze some Runner beans and tomato sauce, because they tend to come on all at once.

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    1. Hi Mark, mmm tomato season. Yes after an initial slow start they do tend to come all at once, definitely worth freezing some.

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